


With Flame and Fury

by AlexSeanchai



Series: Daughter of the Sun [3]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, F/F, Podfic Welcome
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 15:02:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,982
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20342074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexSeanchai/pseuds/AlexSeanchai
Summary: Sighing—no one ever stayed inside to play a gameYuukiliked—she pulled out a deck of cards and started balancing them one against the next."Hey, Yuuki," called one of the girls, and Yuuki's house collapsed. "You should come out and play basketball with us!""You're twice my height," Yuuki pointed out. "I don't want to make you lose." Any friendships she made by going outside to play basketball would be about as sturdy as that house of cards, anyway.Series 0, with a twist or two.





	1. dawning shadow

**Author's Note:**

> Drafted 2015–16.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "So what's in the box?" Anzu-chan asked.
> 
> Yuuki brightened up: she'd been longing to tell Anzu-chan about this! "Promise you'll keep it a secret?" she asked, and Anzu-chan nodded. Yuuki opened the box. "It's a puzzle!"

Mutou Yuuki watched her classmates rush outside to play basketball. Sighing—no one ever stayed inside to play a game _she_ liked—she pulled out a deck of cards and started balancing them one against the next.

"Hey, Yuuki," called one of the girls, and Yuuki's house collapsed. "You should come out and play basketball with us!"

"You're twice my height," Yuuki pointed out. "I don't want to make you lose." Any friendships she made by going outside to play basketball would be about as sturdy as that house of cards, anyway.

"Good point," said the girl, and she headed off.

And why that hurt, Yuuki had no idea.

Bored with the house of cards, Yuuki put the deck back together and then away in her backpack. Her fingers brushed against cool metal: the puzzle! Maybe she'd solve that today!

Probably not, since she'd only been working on it since she was seven. But maybe.

Yuuki pulled out the puzzle box, wondering (again) quietly to herself what the inscriptions on the box meant. The inscriptions themselves, plainly visible but utterly illegible: 'something you can see that can't be seen', like the puzzle itself…

The puzzle box vanished from Yuuki's desk. "What are you over here muttering to yourself about, Yuuki-chan?" said Jounouchi Katsuya, peering curiously at the box.

"I'd like my box back," said Yuuki. "Shouldn't you be outside peeking up girls' skirts when they take their shots?"

"Eh, boring," said Jounouchi. "This is _much_ more interesting. What is it, anyway?"

"Mine," said Yuuki. "I'd like my box back, please."

"You know, I don't get you, Yuuki-chan," said Jounouchi. "You don't act girly, but you don't act like a guy either. You should pick one and stick with it, you know?"

"What does that have to do with would you please give my box back?" Yuuki demanded, cringing. If Otou-san heard that—If she had friends, she wouldn't have to put up with this. If she had friends, nobody would _dare_—

"Leave her alone, Jounouchi," said Honda Hiroto.

"Who's gonna stop me?" Jounouchi asked. "The freshman student-president reject? Wait, no, it's the school janitor!"

Honda started talking, indignant; Yuuki paid no attention, her eyes on the box in Jounouchi's hands.

"So what's in the box?" Jounouchi asked.

"You can look," Yuuki said, deciding that would do no harm, "but don't lose any! It's very important to me!"

Jounouchi popped the lid up and frowned down at the gold puzzle pieces, poking them around with one finger. "Boring," he proclaimed.

"If it's boring," said the most delightful voice on the planet, "why don't you give it back?" Mazaki Anzu-chan plucked the box from Jounouchi's hands and plunked it on Yuuki's desk. "Know what's boring?" Anzu-chan continued. "Being a bully."

"I'm not a bully!" Jounouchi exclaimed. "I'm being nice to the loner girl, showing interest in the things she likes!"

"Pulling her pigtails, you mean?" Anzu-chan asked.

Yuuki blinked twice. That would make sense. That would make sense of a lot of little incidents, a couple times a week since Yuuki met Jounouchi at the beginning of this school year. If he _liked_ her, like Yuuki _liked_ Anzu-chan—

Maybe Yuuki should tell Otou-san about Jounouchi. Maybe—

But that would only work if Yuuki liked Jounouchi back, or could fake it well enough to fool her father. With Anzu-chan around…

Voices, one Nosaka Miho's, and Yuuki looked up just as Jounouchi and Honda vanished out the door. Miho wasn't in sight. Anzu-chan let out a sigh. "I wish boys had some better way to show they like a girl than to aggravate her," she said.

"Thanks, Anzu," Yuuki said. "You think Jounouchi-kun likes me?"

"I don't know what to think," said Anzu-chan. "Maybe he does. Maybe he's just being a bully. You should stand up for yourself once in a while."

Yuuki tried to still her beating heart. This was the longest conversation she'd had with Anzu-chan in— She blurted out the first thing to mind: "He's not so bad."

Anzu-chan shrugged, then eyed her. "You like him?"

Yuuki dropped her eyes. "I—"

"So what's in the box?" Anzu-chan asked.

Yuuki brightened up: she'd been longing to tell Anzu-chan about this! "Promise you'll keep it a secret?" she asked, and Anzu-chan nodded. Yuuki opened the box. "It's a puzzle!"

"Pretty!" Anzu-chan exclaimed.

Yuuki grinned. "I've never solved it, so I don't know what it looks like—so it's 'something you see that can't be seen', get it?"

Anzu-chan nodded, still admiring the shiny gold.

"It's from Egypt," Yuuki continued. "I don't know how Jii-chan got it, but look at the writing! It's hieroglyphics. I don't know what they say, but I bet it's something like 'Whoever solves this puzzle will be granted one wish'—"

Yuuki stopped. Did Anzu-chan _know_? Yuuki didn't know. Time to backpedal furiously. "I bet you think I'm being silly," she said, faking a little laugh. "I bet you're going to make fun of me now."

"I would never," said Anzu-chan, smiling warmly. "I bet you'll solve it soon and get your wish. What are you wishing for?"

Yuuki hoped she wasn't turning red. "If I tell, it won't come true!"

* * *

"Check this out," Katsuya told Honda, opening his palm to reveal the oddly warm puzzle piece with the weird eye on it. "I took it from Yuuki's treasure box just now. I'm sure it's a puzzle—so without this piece, little freak girl only _thinks_ she has a treasure."

"You've always been hopeless, Jounouchi," said Honda, eyes narrowed, "but you're really hopeless! How about using your brain for a change?"

Katsuya eyed him. "Aren't you going to buy lunch?" Of course Honda was going to buy lunch. Miho hadn't had any yet.

Honda took off.

Yeah, taking Yuuki's puzzle piece maybe hadn't been the brightest move of Katsuya's life—right up there with antagonizing Ushio-san just now, when he accused Katsuya and Honda of bullying Yuuki—but he'd _had_ to, and he didn't know why. He still didn't know why.

He really didn't like not knowing why.

* * *

The Eye of Horus winked in the noontime sun as the central piece of the Millennium Puzzle soared into the canal.

* * *

Yuuki turned the puzzle pieces over in her mind as she walked home. The clock tower in the square read a few minutes later than usual, which was entirely Ushio-san's fault; she didn't need a bodyguard, certainly not to defend against Jounouchi and Honda, and if she did need a bodyguard she'd probably bribe Jounouchi to fill that role. Not Ushio-san. Yuuki figured the point of having a bodyguard was to scare everyone but the bodyguardee.

"Jii-chan, I'm home!" Yuuki called as she opened the game store front door. Then stopped just before colliding with Anzu-chan. "Hi, Anzu," she said. "This is a surprise."

"It's been a while," Anzu-chan said cheerily. "I thought since you don't seem to hate me anymore, I'd come over and play something with you."

"I never hated you," protested Yuuki.

"Could have fooled me," said Anzu-chan. "So what was really going on when you wouldn't speak to me ever?"

Yuuki looked away. So Anzu-chan didn't know. Well, Yuuki certainly wasn't going to be the one to tell her. "I'm sorry," Yuuki mumbled.

"You're late, Yuuki-chan," interrupted Grandpa.

"I'm home now, Jii-chan," said Yuuki, looking over at him.

"Anzu-chan tells me you're still working on that puzzle," said Grandpa. "You haven't given up yet?"

"Who's giving up?" asked Yuuki.

"It's impossible for any mere human to complete," said Grandpa, staring Yuuki in the eyes. "You can't do it." He slid his eyes sideways to Anzu-chan, then back to Yuuki, and winked.

Whatever that meant. Yuuki certainly hadn't heard him say anything like this before!

"It has a long history, too," Grandpa added.

"History?" Anzu-chan asked.

Grandpa launched into the story Yuuki had heard before: of the mysterious deaths of everyone in the excavation team who found the puzzle, and the last survivor's last words: Shadow Games.

That bit was new.

"Yuuki, this puzzle sounds dangerous," said Anzu-chan with a nervous little laugh when Grandpa finished.

"Shadow Games, huh?" said Yuuki, ignoring Anzu-chan. Dangerous…well, she'd been trying to put the puzzle together since she was _little_ and it hadn't hurt her yet. But if it made _her_ dangerous…

…then she'd still be lonely, wouldn't she?

"Look at the writing," Grandpa said, and translated: " 'The one who solves me will receive my dark knowledge and power.' "

"It really does make wishes come true!" Yuuki blurted out. "I'm going to go finish this right now!" She turned to hurry upstairs to her bedroom—then stopped. The worried look on Anzu-chan's face—

And Anzu-chan had come here specifically to see Yuuki, after they hadn't really spoken since—well, in years.

Yuuki clutched the puzzle box, wishing again: _I wish I had Anzu-chan back for real. I wish I had true friends, who'll never betray me, no matter what._

Maybe the puzzle was granting the wish already.

"What do you want to play, Anzu?"

* * *

The puzzle came together fairly easily that evening, as though it approved of Yuuki spending time with Anzu-chan instead of it that afternoon.

* * *

"Come with me," Ushio-san said the next day at break. "I'm sure you'll be pleased."

Yuuki turned a corner. Several of Ushio-san's buddies stood over Jounouchi and Honda; they lay against a wall, bruised and battered and groaning.

"Jounouchi-kun! Honda-kun!" Yuuki shouted, horrified, running to see what she could do to help.

Jounouchi looked up.

Yuuki ran straight into Ushio-san's outstretched arm. "What do you think, Yuuki-chan?"

"What did you _do_?" Yuuki demanded.

"I told you," Ushio-san said. "I'm your bodyguard. We punished these bullies."

Yuuki ducked under Ushio-san's arm and ran over. "Are you all right? Jounouchi-kun? Honda-kun?"

"Damn you, Mutou," whispered Jounouchi. "Are you happy now?"

"What? _No_! This is horrible!" Yuuki exclaimed.

"Move over, Yuuki-chan," Ushio-san ordered, pushing her out of the way hard enough that she fell. "We're not done punishing them."

"No!" shouted Yuuki, but that didn't stop Ushio-san from slamming a boot into Jounouchi's chest.

The moment Ushio moved his leg, Yuuki was there, between Jounouchi and Honda—Jounouchi liked her; Honda defended her—and Ushio. "_Stop it!_" she yelled, wishing she had something—size, strength, backup dancers, _something_—to make Ushio actually _stop_ and call off his friends as well. Right now—right now she'd almost trade _being the strong one_ for being _friends with Anzu-chan again_.

"These boys have been bullying you, little girl," Ushio said almost kindly. "Now's your chance to get back at them. Punch them! Kick them!"

"I don't kick people while they're down!" said Yuuki. "I don't want to hurt my friends at all!"

"Friends?" Jounouchi whispered.

"You are a weird little bird," Ushio said, shaking his head. "They're bullies. Don't you want to hurt them?"

"They weren't hurting me," Yuuki said stubbornly. "Jounouchi-kun—" Maybe she was lying. She wasn't sure. "I think he likes me. You know. _Likes_ me."

Ushio blinked down at her for a minute. One of Ushio's crew burst out laughing, and the others followed.

Ushio himself roared with laughter. "Likes you?"

Well, he needn't make it sound so utterly impossible, thought Yuuki, annoyed in a whole new way now.

"By the way, Yuuki-chan, it's time for you to pay your bodyguard fees," Ushio added. "Twenty thousand yen."

Yuuki didn't say anything, but the way Ushio flexed his hand told her that if she didn't pay, she might end up beaten as badly as Jounouchi and Honda.

Or worse.

* * *

Sure enough, there wasn't any twenty thousand yen in Yuuki's coin jar at home.

"Yuuki dear? What's wrong?" asked Mom at dinner.

"Nothing," said Yuuki, fingers on the golden puzzle piece in her left jeans pocket: the puzzle was coming along nicely—better than ever before—but she'd wanted the comfort of having it with her, and Mom never allowed games at the dinner table.

"Yuuki—" said Grandpa.

"It's nothing!" exclaimed Yuuki, and realized too late that the shout gave her away.

But it really was nothing that her mother and grandfather needed to worry about. Wasn't it? She could fix this on her own. Right?

After dinner Yuuki picked up the phone and dialed: she still knew Anzu-chan's number by heart.

"Moshi moshi," said Mrs. Mazaki.

"May I speak to Anzu, please? I'm a friend from school," Yuuki said, which wasn't a lie, she hoped.

A moment later, Anzu-chan said, "Hello?"

"Anzu," said Yuuki.

"Hey!" said Anzu-chan, tone immediately brightening. "What's up?"

"So say there was this guy who you thought might like you," said Yuuki. "And say he had a friend. And say both these guys got beat up by someone who said he was protecting you from them bullying you. What would you do?"

"Oh, what have you gotten mixed up in _this_ time?" asked Anzu-chan.

"I didn't!" Yuuki protested. "I don't—Anzu-chan, he wants money or he'll beat me up too, or— And you know I don't have money. It would be weeks and weeks before I could come up with twenty thousand yen, and he wants that money tomorrow!"

"I'd beat him up right back," said Anzu-chan, and too late Yuuki realized she'd let the familiar diminutive slip out, "but I'm bigger than you and you're not a dancer."

"Yeah," said Yuuki. "Ushio would break me in half if I tried that."

"_Ushio_?" yelped Anzu-chan. "You pissed off—_wow_, Yuuki. I know you're, like, bottom of the food chain—sorry—but that is a whole new low."

"I didn't do it on purpose," said Yuuki, but halfway through the breathing on the other end of the line changed.

"Goodbye, Mutou-san," said Mr. Mazaki.

"Sorry!" shouted Anzu-chan at the phone before it went dead.

Yuuki put the receiver in the cradle with a sigh. Well. Nice to know the Mazaki parents were as delightful as ever.

"Yuuki," said Mom; Yuuki startled, then turned. Mom had cash in her hand.

"How much did you hear?" Yuuki asked.

"All of it," said Mom. "I shouldn't be eavesdropping on your private conversations—I apologize," she said with a formal bow. "But if it will help you, here is the money you need." She held it out: thousand-yen notes, too many to count at a glance.

"Will it help, though?" Yuuki asked. "Won't he just want more next time? And nobody needs his help anyway. I don't want to pay for bodyguarding I don't want or need!"

Her fingers went back to the puzzle piece in her pocket, warm and reassuring.

* * *

It wasn't there. The last piece, the central piece, the piece with the Egyptian eye symbol that dominated the front of the puzzle box—it wasn't there!

Yuuki was running back to school, puzzle box in her backpack, before she even realized where she meant to look for the puzzle piece.

* * *

"We really don't know what that girl's thinking," Honda said again as they walked along the canal.

"I said that," grouched Katsuya.

He looked down. _I don't want to hurt my friends!_ Yuuki'd said. Meaning him. Meaning him and Honda, but _Jounouchi-kun—I think he likes me. You know. **Likes** me._ Whether she believed what she'd said or not, it was why she said she was defending him; why she said she needed to. Which made Jounouchi Katsuya someone important to Yuuki.

Katsuya could count the people he was important to on one hand, with fingers to spare. Taka—Shizuka. Honda. Maybe Katsuya's father—maybe. And now Yuuki.

And a piece of her treasure lay under that water.

* * *

"Yuuki-chan," said Ushio, almost before Yuuki got onto school grounds.

"Ushio-san," said Yuuki. Uh-oh.

"So you brought the bodyguard fee? Good girl."

"I forgot something at school and came to get it!" Yuuki protested. "I don't have the money!"

"I guess you're going to need to learn what happens to people who don't pay what they owe," Ushio said. "Come on." He grabbed her shoulder and steered her to a secluded corner, away from the main gate where any passerby might see and come to help.

He was three times her size. There was literally nothing Yuuki could do. Against the mocking laughter of the older girls, there was at least hypothetically some combination of words that would shut them up—against physical force, Yuuki had no defense.

Ushio's fist slammed into her gut.

Footsteps to one side. From the ground, Yuuki couldn't see whose.

"Oh, it's the bullies," said Ushio dismissively.

"Yuuki, hey, hang on!" said Jounouchi, crouching at her side. Something dripped onto her arm.

I asked the puzzle for true friends, thought Yuuki.

Jounouchi pressed something warm and hard into her palm.

Honda shouted, "I used to respect you, Ushio-san!"

Yuuki tried to get up, but it hurt too much.

"You think two on one is going to help you?" Ushio said, laughing.

Thuds. Smacks. Thumps.

"This is what happens to those who defy me!" crowed Ushio.

Yuuki finally managed to move her head, only to see Jounouchi and Honda on the ground and Ushio walking away—but in her hand lay the last piece of the puzzle, and the puzzle itself was in her backpack, only a few tens of centimeters out of arm's reach.

She had to solve the puzzle. Only a few more centimeters. Her wish would come true when she solved the puzzle. Only a little farther—

The puzzle piece snicked into place.

A golden glow, and the world fell away.

* * *

The watcher had a body again. The watcher had never had a body before.

The body was injured: something torn inside. Someone would pay for that. The power of the Puzzle, once its cord settled about the body's neck, could tend to that, and the watcher set immediately to knotting the delicate tissues together—did one recall doing this for someone, before?—but the person who inflicted the injury would pay nonetheless.

The assailant was neither of the two boys who lay beaten on the ground near where the body had lain: that was clear. The only other person around was the tall young man walking away, with droplets of blood on his fingers. One of the boys had a bloody nose, the other a split lip, and the body herself was not externally bleeding; the assailant had attacked all three, then. One must heal the boys, but first—

The watcher stood up, allowed oneself precisely three heartbeats to revel in the joy of being able to stand, and whisked shadows around oneself and the assailant, drawing a veil between the shadows and the body's usual inhabitant. She would not be able to see what one did.

There was a deck of cards in her carry-bag. She knew the general rules of how to play cards, one knew how to manipulate the shadows, and one knew how to stack the deck. That would do for creating a game that the assailant would think fair—until he cheated, as those destined for a Penalty Game always did.

Yes, that would do.

"So," said one. "It's game time."

* * *

"I brought my treasure today, just like you," said Jounouchi to Yuuki the next morning. Yuuki looked up from her completed puzzle-pendant, surprised. After getting beat up for her last night—she remembered that much—he was speaking to her today?

But then, Ushio was apparently in the hospital, judging by the very loud gossip in the hallways. Jounouchi and Honda—and Yuuki—were probably safe from him for a while.

"Do you want to see it?" Jounouchi continued.

Yuuki nodded, starting to smile.

"It's 'something you see that can't be seen'!" said Jounouchi. "It's kind of hard to show that off, you know?"

Yuuki blinked at him, confused. "You can see it but you can't?" she repeated.

Jounouchi winked at her. "Friendship," he said. "We can see it in each other."

Yuuki grinned.


	2. sights and sounds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Jounouchi's been Honda's best friend since they met—" Thinking of her lie, Yuuki thought of Anzu in a way assured to redden her cheeks. "He's a jackass, but he's okay."
> 
> Mom brightened right up. "Is that a crush I see?"

"You haven't _changed_ at all, have you?" Grandpa asked at breakfast the next day, feeling Yuuki's forehead.

"No," said Yuuki. "Why?"

"Remember the inscription on the box," Grandpa said. " 'The one who solves me will receive my dark knowledge and power.' "

Yuuki smiled, looking away. "It made my wish come true. I have _friends_, Jii-chan!"

"Friends?" Grandpa repeated, sounding completely flabbergasted.

Yuuki glared at him. "You don't have to make it sound so _impossible_."

"We're happy for you, Yuuki dear," said Mom. "Tell me about your friends?"

"Anzu, of course," Yuuki said cheerfully, gaze dropping back to her Puzzle (but she thought she saw Mom pale at the name), "and Miho's her best friend since middle school started, they go shopping together. Honda's got a crush on Miho, I think. He wants to be class president next year, and he's in the beautification club." Which only meant he did a little more school cleaning than everyone else, really. "Jounouchi's been Honda's best friend since they met—" Thinking of her lie, she thought of Anzu in a way assured to redden her cheeks. "He's a jackass, but he's okay."

Mom brightened right up. "Is that a crush I see?"

Yuuki needed no help deepening her blush. "None of your business!" She stuffed one last forkful of food in her mouth, swallowed, and swung the Puzzle into place around her neck.

"You're not wearing that piece of flash to school, are you?" asked Mom.

"Why not?" Yuuki asked. "Kaoruko-san wears jewelry flashier than this all the time. Not as big," she admitted. "But nobody seemed to mind me wearing it yesterday."

Yuuki wasn't about to admit that she'd slept with the Puzzle in her arms the last two nights, poky corners and all. It wasn't compulsion, exactly; more like need—if she let it out of her reach too long, it seemed as though the past few days would go pop like a viciously beautiful soap bubble.

She noted the clock—and Grandpa's worried face, though what could he possibly be worried about? He didn't…actually believe that the Puzzle was bad news…did he?

"Gotta go!"

* * *

"I watched it like _this_!" Jounouchi told Honda with squinting eyes. "But I still couldn't make out the censored bits! All the good stuff was digitized out!"

"Hi, guys," Yuuki said, running up in time to overhear that. "What are you talking about?"

"Hey, look, a TV van in front of the school!" Jounouchi said.

"Maybe someone famous goes here?" Yuuki wondered, diverted.

"That," said Honda fervently, "would be _awesome_."

"I'm gonna go take a look," said Yuuki, and hurried over to the ZTV van.

"Yuuki?" Anzu-chan called after her.

Yuuki peered through the window for a long moment. "Nothing," she called, turning back to her friends—to her _friends_; she was never going to get tired of that. "It's a one-way mirror."

"Guess that makes sense," said Honda. "The star wouldn't want just anyone sneaking peeks, would he?"

"You sure they're not a she?" Jounouchi asked. "Or even a they?"

"There is no star at this school," Anzu-chan said, rolling her eyes and waving them on into the building.

"There totally is," Jounouchi argued. "They're here in disguise, 'cause kids our age got to be in school even if they're movie stars—"

"Don't star actor kids get special tutoring in between filming?" Honda asked.

"Oh, don't take _her_ side—"

"I'm not taking her side, I'm just questioning being on yours—"

Yuuki shook her head, smiling. Friends. It was nice.

* * *

Okay, this upperclassman Fujita? Really a creep, Anzu decided. Yuuki-chan's patience was clearly wearing thin, as well: she'd actually raised her voice to the guy.

What was so important about getting Yuuki out behind the gym by herself during recess?

* * *

Richardson-sensei, who taught English, had a thing about acquainting her students with American culture. So it was Han Solo who came to Yuuki's mind every time Fujita-san approached her that day: _I've got a bad feeling about this._ She suspected Han of being someone who _could_ have been a Jedi, like Luke, if only there had been teachers to show him how.

Anzu-chan looked away from Yuuki for a moment on the way out to recess, and Yuuki slipped out the door.

Behind the gym, Fujita-san waited—alone, as far as Yuuki could see. But she could almost _hear_ a half dozen more heartbeats, almost drowned by the pound of her own.

"I didn't think you were coming," Fujita-san said honestly.

"After your fifth outlandish tale," Yuuki said, "I just had to see what you were so desperate to show me."

Fujita-san's fist slammed into her chin. Everything blanked out for a moment.

"Stop right there!" hollered Jounouchi's familiar voice. "The hell are you doing? Didn't your daddy ever tell you it's not nice to hit girls?"

Fujita's attention swiveled to Jounouchi. "Who are you?" he asked blankly.

Jounouchi ignored this. "Yuuki, are you all right?"

"Ow," Yuuki answered, wobbling on her feet. Her shoulder hurt, and her side: how long had she been out? Only a few moments, unlike the night before last—

"You!" Jounouchi said, turning to Fujita. "I'm gonna kill you!"

"On camera?" asked an amused man. Yuuki glanced over: the owner of one of those half dozen heartbeats had come out of the bushes, and another, holding a video camera, was just visible now. "You're a star, Yuuki-chan," the man added to her. "Viewers will send in letters of sympathy by the dozen."

For a long minute none of those words made any sense, alone or together.

Jounouchi said something, and the man replied, but Yuuki didn't catch any of it. Her ears rang. Something was very off here—

The man slammed his knee into Jounouchi's crotch. That Yuuki saw just before everything went black.

* * *

"Don't worry," said the man in charge of the group of people who had ambushed the body and the body's friend. "I'll hide your face with a digital mosaic. No one will know it's you."

The watcher perceived, searching the body's memories, that the strange boxes the people carried were means of recording images and sound. One dared do nothing that would draw unfriendly attention to oneself. One could only mend the damage to the body and to her friend's as well, and wait.

One noted the _ZTV_ inscribed on the side of the self-drawn chariot that carried the assailant and his people away.

The body's memories steered one through algebra class: one found the symbol manipulation to have vivid applicability to magery, much more efficient than clacking abacus beads; one would have to tell—who?—as soon as one could find them. One paid little attention to the recorded images and sounds played in English class, and marked no strange glyphs on the excellent-quality almost-papyrus provided for the marking; difficult enough to understand the body's native tongue, harder still to translate the foreign speech! Though if this tongue was spoken by foreigners of importance…was the body in training to be a diplomat, a mage, or a scribe? Given the sheer number of people here, and the sense that there were many such places and few young people outside them, was there anyone in this strange land _not_ trained as a scribe?

One said nothing at all, and escaped the place of schooling at the first moment the body would not be missed.

The body's memories carried one at a steady walking pace to the center of the city, and _such_ a city it was: she had seen the ZTV building before and knew vaguely where it was, and a little exploration brought one to where the chariots waited. One of them smelled distinctly of the man one sought.

One waited.

"Of course," said the man in response to a compliment from another departing person, as the two approached the man's chariot. "If the slop is good, the pigs will eat!" (Such respect.) The other man left, and the man one sought murmured, "Maybe next time I'll kill someone on camera…"

A dangerous person, then. Too dangerous to be permitted to walk the streets unhindered. The body seemed to have a knack for finding such: this was the second in two nights, was it not? Or was it three nights?

This—dealing with such people—this was what one was meant to do.

"So," said one. "It's game time."

* * *

Yuuki woke somewhere in downtown Domino, walking home.

* * *

"Is everything all right now?" Miho asked, stopping at Yuuki's desk on the way to her own.

Yuuki looked up. "What do you mean?"

"You're talking today," Miho said with a shrug. "Jounouchi-kun told us what happened at recess yesterday, and you didn't say a single word to anyone between then and now—that Miho knows of, anyway," she added.

"What did Jounouchi-kun tell you?" Yuuki asked. Recess yesterday, with the bullies and cameras—that was the last thing she remembered before being downtown as darkness fell.

"Just that you got beat up some and he got beat up some," Miho said. She lowered her voice. "He said he might actually kill that director if he sees him again."

That's not going to be a problem, Yuuki thought, and immediately wondered how she knew that, why she was so sure of it. "I won't stop him," she said aloud.

"Stop who?" asked Kimura Masuyo.

"None of your business," said Yuuki.

Kimura-san frowned down at her. "Nice collar, dweeb."

One of Yuuki's hands leapt to her neck, where the collar rested. She didn't remember putting it on. She hadn't blacked out this morning too, had she?

"Leave her alone," said Miho.

"It's okay," said Yuuki. "It _is_ a nice collar." She smiled up at Kimura-san.

"Better not let Chono-sensei catch you with a uniform violation!" Kimura-san added. She grinned, in that way that meant she was going to tell Chono-sensei first chance she got.

Yuuki shrugged, completely unsure of why she was so completely sure that it wouldn't matter what anyone thought about either collar or Puzzle. Both were staying.

"Kimura-san!" called a classmate from across the room, and Kimura-san, with one final significant look at Yuuki, left.

"_Is_ everything all right now?" Miho asked again.

Yuuki glanced away, trying to figure out how to answer in a way that wouldn't freak Miho out. She didn't _know_ Miho very well, really—and it would be nice to have friends, girl friends, who weren't Anzu. The Puzzle might have granted that wish for friendship, but Yuuki knew how to solve it now, and she wasn't going to get a second piece of magic if she muffed the first one.

"Oh!" said Miho. "You have earrings!"

Yuuki startled.

"Miho likes them," Miho added. "Very simple, very _you_."

"Thank you," Yuuki said, smiling, and resolved to take a close look at herself in the bathroom mirror at break.

* * *

Miho was right: the tiny gold-tone studs just _fit_.

* * *

A week later, Yuuki got on the bus heading for school thinking—for the first time in a week—_I hope something fun happens today,_ not _I hope I don't black out again._ Maybe it was too optimistic of her to hope that the blackouts were over, since she hadn't had one in a week, but—

So she was a glass half full kind of girl. Sue her.

The bus was ridiculously crowded, but not so crowded that she couldn't recognize Hanasaki Tomoya from her class. "Good morning, Hanasaki-san!" she called out, spotting him from a couple people-widths away.

Hanasaki looked over, then looked back out the window.

The bus driver must have slammed on her brakes: the force of the stop pushed Yuuki to the virtually empty back of the bus. Empty but for Sozoji Koharu and her absurdly loud rock music.

She's going to deafen herself someday, Yuuki thought. That might be a good thing, given her famous concerts—

"Yuuki-chan!" exclaimed Sozoji-san, delighted. "Come sit by me!"

Oh no.

* * *

Yuuki headed into school with ten ¥2000 concert tickets in her pocket. Six-to-four ratio of girls to boys, Sozoji-san wanted—well, that wasn't going to happen, because Yuuki (having been compelled to attend two Sozoji Koharu concerts before) wasn't going to sell any tickets. She'd put up with Sozoji-san's horrid voice herself, and take any beating the upperclasswoman cared to dish out for Yuuki's failure to sell any tickets to anyone fool enough to buy one.

—but Yuuki had blacked out last time someone punched her. That—uh-oh.

"Hey, Yuuki-chan," Jounouchi said, leaning on Yuuki's desk. "What's wrong? You look down."

"Nothing," Yuuki lied. "Nothing whatsoever."

"Oh, there isn't a star at this school," Jounouchi said. "I looked into it."

Yuuki blinked. "You're still on about that?"

Jounouchi grinned at her. "That's it, though. I'm gonna be the first star from this school!"

Yuuki didn't say anything. Sozoji-san's dream was to be an idol singer—she'd said so often enough—and the tickets seemed almost to burn in her pocket.

"Yuuki-chan?" asked Jounouchi.

Yuuki shook herself. "You going to find a director like the one from last week, get them to hire you as an actor?"

"Funny thing about that director," Jounouchi said, smirking. "Heard somebody found him in the parking garage of the ZTV building downtown, same night he had us beaten up. Heard he was hollering bloody murder about little girls with loaded dice and not being able to see a thing. Heard they don't know what's wrong with him, but he might never direct another piece of crap film again. Karma, right?"

"Really?" Yuuki said. It came out in a whisper. She cleared her throat, and the next try was louder: "Karma? Really?"

"Saves me from having to strangle him, anyway," Jounouchi said. "Hey, Honda!"

Downtown. That night she'd blacked out all afternoon and half the evening. And something horrid had happened to the person she'd been looking at when she blacked out.

Just like Ushio.

If Yuuki showed up alone to Sozoji-san's concert, Sozoji-san would beat her up for failing to bring paying guests. Yuuki would wake up somewhere well away from the karaoke room. Sozoji-san would wake up in the hospital. Yuuki knew this, as certain as she knew her name.

But she couldn't subject anyone else to a Sozoji concert. That would be cruel.

Speaking of cruel. "Don't even think about it," she told Jounouchi and Honda, who immediately pretended they hadn't been about to use the T-square to flip up Anzu's skirt.

"Think about what?" Anzu asked.

"Something that would probably end with you punching out Jounouchi-kun," Yuuki said honestly.

Anzu eyed Jounouchi. "Oh?"

Mercifully for Jounouchi and Honda, just then Suzuki-sensei called the class to order.

* * *

Ten tickets, fifteen tickets, what did it matter? At least by offering to sell Hanasaki's five Sozoji Koharu tickets _for_ him, she'd gotten him out of having to attend the concert.

Yuuki wasn't going to do anything horrible to Sozoji-san. Quite the opposite.

Right?

* * *

"Everyone was busy tonight," Yuuki told Sozoji-san. "I'm really sorry."

"Not even one ticket," Sozoji-san repeated. "You're really pathetic, you know that? I could have done better if I'd sold them myself!"

"It's okay," Yuuki said, trying for reassuring. "I'll listen to your songs."

"Damn right you will," said Sozoji-san.

Yuuki took the headphones without protest: no punching so far, no blacking out so far, that was good, right? She didn't make a sound during the first song, either, not that (with all the volume controls set to max) anyone could have heard her if she had.

"And before the next song," Sozoji-san announced, "let's introduce our special guest!" She pulled aside the karaoke room's stage curtain.

Yuuki stared. "Hanasaki-san!"

He needed new glasses—the beating Sozoji must have given him had cracked both lenses. He might need a _hospital_.

"This is your fault for stealing his tickets, Yuuki-chan!" Sozoji told her.

Hanasaki and she weren't friends. That didn't matter. He was hurt, and it was _her_ fault, all Yuuki's fault—

No. It was Sozoji's fault.

The fury brought on the blackness.

* * *

"Yuuki, it's okay," said the boy. "I shouldn't have let you take the tickets—"

"It's not your fault," said the watcher, and nudged the body's—Yuuki's—memories for the boy's name. "Hanasaki. It's not your fault."

One looked at the older girl. "Sozoji. Are you a coward?"

"What the hell sort of question is that?" demanded Sozoji.

"Cowards run," one said simply. "If you're not a coward, you won't run." One waited for Sozoji's nod of understanding. "Now then. Shall we play a game?"

* * *

Hanasaki's arm was slung over her shoulders, and they were heading—probably to his house.

They weren't in the karaoke place. Which meant—

"Oh no," said Yuuki.

"Mutou-san?" asked Hanasaki, confused.

"I did it again," Yuuki said. "Didn't I."

"You were _awesome_, Mutou-san," said Hanasaki earnestly. "You really showed her. I don't know why she started screaming at the end of the game, though—"

"Game?" Yuuki asked, heart sinking.

Hanasaki stopped walking, so Yuuki stopped too. "What's wrong?" he asked.

He and Yuuki weren't friends. It didn't matter if he freaked out—and it didn't sound like he was going to, anyway. "I don't remember what happened," Yuuki admitted. "She said I stole your tickets, and that's all, folks. Until just now."

"Oh," said Hanasaki, swallowing. "Um."

"What happened?" Yuuki asked. She had to know. She'd known this was going to happen, and she'd gone ahead with it anyway, and whatever had happened to Sozoji was her fault—she _needed_ to know.

Hanasaki explained about the silence-game challenge and the Sound Pierrots, how Sozoji had lost through too loud a pulse next to too sensitive a microphone, what Yuuki herself had said about rock music rhythms and the heartbeat, how they'd snuck out as Sozoji was screaming about noise Hanasaki couldn't hear. "You were awesome, Mutou-san," he repeated.

"Awesome," Yuuki repeated numbly. "I hurt _her_."

"She hurt me," Hanasaki pointed out. "She hurt you."

"That doesn't make it okay to hurt her back!"

Hanasaki shrugged, then winced. "That's what superheroes do," he said.


	3. lit on fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The watcher pelted down the streets of the city, following the feel of the girl's ka, impressed upon one a mere handful of hours before the body—Yuuki—solved the Puzzle. Several self-pulled chariots blared noise at one for getting in their way. One did not care. Someone under one's protection found herself in danger.

Two weeks passed without—further incident. Yuuki nearly exploding at Jounouchi when he accused Anzu of "dating for pay" did not qualify as an incident: nothing happened to Jounouchi, and Yuuki the next day remembered the entire embarrassing scene.

What business was it of his if Anzu disappeared after school, anyway? Or where she got her money? Friendship isn't commutative; they were both friends of Yuuki's, but not of each other's. Yuuki was perfectly happy to keep Anzu's secrets from Jounouchi. And everyone else.

That said, Miho finding out Anzu's secrets on her own initiative…wasn't something Yuuki could predict or prevent. Honda following Miho? Entirely predictable but not preventable.

The day Jounouchi suggested Honda was joining Anzu and Miho in 'dating for pay'… "It's possible," Jounouchi said defensively. "Obviously he might be seeing a rich old lady. Or a rich old guy—some guys like guys, there's nothing wrong with that really—"

Yuuki opted to ignore that last statement for the moment. "Nobody is dating for pay," she said, rolling her eyes. "I know what Anzu's doing, I can guess what Miho and Honda are doing, and it's none of your business. Why don't we go to the arcade?"

The little café at the arcade had TVs perpetually tuned to the local news. Yuuki, going for snacks an hour after she and Jounouchi arrived, caught sight of the building in the background of the "developing news story" and stopped dead. She'd never seen the place before. She'd never _been_ to Burger World. But the phrases "hostage situation" and "armed convict", in conjunction with where Anzu worked—

_Now would be an excellent time for an incident!_

* * *

The watcher pelted down the streets of the city, following the feel of the girl's ka, impressed upon one a mere handful of hours before the body—Yuuki—solved the Puzzle. Several self-pulled chariots blared noise at one for getting in their way. One did not care. Someone under one's protection found herself in danger.

—Three someones, one discovered when arriving at the overgrown food stall. The enemy held only one weapon, pointed at Anzu, but fear for Anzu's life (and their own lives, should the weapon be aimed at them and set off) kept Honda and Miho, and the lawkeeper and the other customers, from acting. Outside, several more lawkeepers and two chariots of people with recording devices—one was careful to avoid their sight—milled around. Lawkeepers, it seemed, did not carry distance weapons.

…Sensible, but inconvenient.

One did not possess the knack of being invisible. Or if one did, one had forgotten the trick of it; one knew so little now. So. How to set up the game with the enemy, without being inside the building with the enemy?

And how to do it without anyone noticing?

Anzu's ka twisted in fear; the enemy was doing something—

Of course!

* * *

_I won't say Broadway, but I wanted to dance on a **small** stage, at least…_

But the cold press of the gun muzzle behind her ear made Anzu increasingly convinced, as each moment passed, that that would never happen.

_Anzu._

_Who said that?_ Anzu almost asked aloud, but the last time she'd spoken, Jirou had slapped her. Still. Who said that?

_Anzu. Yuuki will be most upset if you get hurt._

Okay. Definitely hearing someone. And Jirou didn't seem to hear—him? the voice seemed too deep to be female—at all; nor did the police officer, because his voice continued without a hesitation.

_Anzu. I need your help if I'm to help you._

What was he talking about? Anzu wondered.

_Let me show you._ Against the black of the blindfold played what Anzu could only call a video clip of the potential future: what to do, what to say, and exactly how to say and do it.

_Okay,_ thought Anzu, and she felt a small weight appear in her pocket, exactly where it would need to be for this stunt. _I'm a dancer, not an actor,_ she told the helpful guy. (She was a good liar, but that wasn't the same thing.) _But here goes nothing._

"I'm bored," Anzu said out loud. "Jirou-san, why don't we play a game to pass the time?"

"What are you _doing_?" hissed Miho.

Jirou laughed, disbelieving. "You have a gun to your head, little girl—and you're _bored_."

"What's wrong?" Anzu shot back. "Scared you'll lose to little me?"

"Of course not!" Jirou snapped. "What _game_ did you have in mind?"

"It's called War," Anzu said. So far, so good. "I'm going to get the cards out of my pocket." She reached for the pocket—please be cards, please be cards—_yes_, cards!

_You should trust me a little more,_ said the helpful guy. _This wouldn't work if I couldn't get you the cards._

_Working on it,_ Anzu replied. "I'll shuffle and deal. We each get half the deck, face down—um, which way is face down? I can't see."

Jirou yanked the deck from her hand, flipped it over, and slapped her hand down on it.

"Okay," she said. Shuffle. Deal. Easy enough while blindfolded. While doing so, she continued, "We each turn one card face up at a time. That's a battle. The higher card wins the battle and takes both cards, which go on the bottom of the winner's deck in either order. Ace high. If the cards are the same value, we each deal out three face down and one face up, and the winner of _that_ battle takes all ten cards. And so on until someone wins all the cards. You're going to have to tell me what the cards are, of course."

"You're stalling," Jirou said, suspicious.

"I want to get out of here alive," Anzu said truthfully. "You're a good manager," she lied. "I don't want you to get hurt either." Back to honesty: "So yeah, I'm stalling. What are you going to do about it? Back out of the game, like a coward would?"

_Got him!_ exclaimed the helpful guy.

"Just play," said Jirou.

Anzu exhaled and finished dealing.

"Oh, one more thing," she added at the helpful guy's prompting. "_Don't cheat_."

"My Jack," said Jirou as Anzu turned over her first card. "Your seven." He took the two cards, they each flipped another, and he said, "My two, your three." Anzu took the cards and flipped another. "My ace, your two. …My four, your five. …My queen, your five. …My Jack, your two. …My eight, your eight."

Anzu dealt three cards face down and one face up.

"My King, your Queen," said Jirou, and took the cards. "My ten, your two. …My ace, your Jack. …My seven, your three." Et cetera. And so forth. And so on.

_What are you waiting for?_ Anzu demanded.

_He has to either lose or cheat,_ the helpful guy said with what sounded like a shrug. _Losing might take some time. I expect him to get bored first. Or notice that the lawkeepers have sent for reinforcements._

"My seven, your seven," said Jirou. Anzu dealt three cards and flipped one. "My eight, your three," said Jirou.

_He didn't even last one time through the deck,_ said the helpful guy with a hint of smugness.

Jirou screamed.

The gun left Anzu's head: she dove out of the way, yanking off the blindfold as soon as she thought she was clear. He screamed on and on—he leaped from the booth and dropped the gun, pressing his hands to his head—Anzu _lunged_.

Not having the faintest idea what to do with a gun except _not pull the trigger_, she held it by the muzzle, but at least it was in _her_ control, now, not Jirou's.

An eight and a three were indeed on top of the stacks of battle cards, but the stack nearer Anzu—her cards, not Jirou's—had the eight.

Anzu took a few steps past a disbelieving Miho and astonished Honda to the police officer. "Officer-san," she said, "I think you want to take this." She held out the gun.

"Put that down carefully," the officer advised, and buzzed someone outside. A moment later, another officer entered with a pair of handcuffs and headed over to Jirou, still standing in the aisle with his hands to his head, screaming incoherently.

Anzu set the gun down on the countertop and her legs folded under her.

_Thank you,_ whispered the helpful guy. _For letting me help you._

_Anytime,_ replied Anzu, and burst out laughing until she cried.

When the police were done questioning everyone in Burger World, Anzu changed back into her school uniform, reclaimed the helpful guy's deck of cards, and started heading home. She ran into Yuuki a single block from the restaurant. "What are you doing here?" she asked, surprised.

"I was in the area," Yuuki said unconvincingly.

"Yeah, try that on someone who might believe it," Anzu muttered, and regretted it instantly at Yuuki's expression. "I've just had a really horrible day, okay? Let's go to your place and play—" She choked on the word _cards_. "—a board game or video game or something."

Yuuki grinned. "Sure!"

* * *

Anzu related the _incident_ quietly over a game of Pachisi, Yuuki playing yellow and blue and Anzu green and red.

"That…" Yuuki said when Anzu finished. "I don't mean to imply I don't believe you, Anzu-chan, but that doesn't make any sense!"

"Yeah," said Anzu, rolling to move a green piece. "I know."

Yuuki frowned down at the Puzzle. Four incidents in four weeks, beginning the very evening—the very _moment_—she solved it, and (currently) culminating in an incident she was glad had happened, _glad_: Anzu was alive and unhurt, as were Miho and Honda; of course she was glad! But at the same time, she wished it had never happened. What had she done? What could she do? Without knowing what was happening, how could she control it?

What would happen if—next time—she went after not someone threatening her friends but a bystander, or one of her friends themselves?

'The one who solves me will receive my dark knowledge and power,' Grandpa had said about solving the Puzzle. Dark power—Yuuki seemed to have that. Dark knowledge—no.

_What did you **do** to me?_ she thought in the general direction of the Puzzle.

Only silence answered her.

"Yuuki?" prompted Anzu. "Blue's turn."

* * *

That night Yuuki dreamed of walking through impossible labyrinths with a multitude of doors. Behind one door, she knew, waited everything she wanted to know. Behind another door, one she knew precisely where to find no matter where she was in the labyrinth, lay the exit. Behind every other door was a deadly trap.

And yet she opened door after door, dodging falling pillars and leaping back from crumbling floors, slamming doors shut to keep monsters safely inside, running full pelt from monsters too quick to be caught that way. Wise would be—wise would be leaving the labyrinth, returning to the safety of the waking world. Wise would be leaving behind all hope of answers.

Yuuki had never been accused of being wise.

Night after night she returned to the labyrinth: now that she had found the way in, she did not think she could bear to leave without the truth. No _incidents_ plagued her waking hours—but then, surrounded as she was by friends, neither did bullies.

Behind this door: several Kuriboh, one of which soared toward her, banged into the door frame, and exploded. Behind that door: Gaia the Fierce Knight, charging. Behind this door: Big Shield Gardna, his shield blocking any passage through the door. Behind that door: the Dark Magician with stern expression, staff held out and forbidding her to pass.

Night after night.

* * *

A week. Two weeks. Yuuki almost dared to relax.

"Yuuki dear, you've been really on edge lately," Mom said one night. "You know you can tell me what's wrong."

Yuuki didn't smile: it would look forced. "Nothing's wrong, Okaa-san," she said quietly. "How could it be? I have too many friends now for anything to be wrong."

Mom blinked. "What was wrong before, then?"

Oops. "Ushio and people like him," Yuuki said. Mom knew about Ushio already, anyway. "It's all right. They don't bother me any more."

Famous last words, Yuuki found herself thinking a few days after that. The whole class had seized enthusiastically upon her idea of carnival games for the Class B booth at the school festival—it was certainly better than Jounouchi's "high school cabaret" idea; Yuuki had thrown a book at him for that, and she wasn't the only one—and Anzu as school-festival officer had won the lottery in that she'd drawn the best spot in the festival for their booth.

Thus the current problem.

_I don't want an incident,_ Yuuki thought furiously, glaring up at Senior Class D's school-festival officer Inogashira Gorou and several of his classmates. She recognized at least one of them as a former crony of Ushio's. _I don't want an incident—_

"Listen up, little girl!" Inogashira-san roared at Anzu. "This is where we make okonomiyaki every year! Take these carnival games somewhere _else_!" He brandished the slip of paper that said—Yuuki could just read it—where his class had drawn for the lottery. "Beat it!"

"Just who do you think you are?" demanded Jounouchi from inside the Bluebeard's Attack barrel. "This is _our_ spot! We won it fair and square!"

"Hmph," said Inogashira-san. "You want to start a fight, man? I won't stop you! In fact, I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

Jounouchi scrambled out of the barrel and lunged at Inogashira-san, who dodged and threw a punch that landed square on Jounouchi's jaw.

Feeling the darkness rising, Yuuki shoved it back as hard as she could. _I don't want an incident!_

"_Sensei_!" Anzu shouted, as Inogashira and companions, bearing a huge griddle as a battering ram, started to bash down the carnival games booth Yuuki and her classmates had put so much time into building. "SENSEI!"

No one answered.

Well. someone was going to have to do _something_, and the shouts of Yuuki's classmates clearly weren't doing anything. Yuuki threw herself into the path of the battering grill. "STOP!" she shouted. "We worked hard on these!"

Inogashira's laugh, and silence.

* * *

Yuuki did not want the watcher to fulfill one's obligations. That was unfortunate for Yuuki. The watcher did not want Yuuki to be injured, certainly not badly enough to render one unaware of one's surroundings for at least several minutes—long enough for Yuuki's companions to convey her to the infirmary, at least. (One could not heal while unaware.) That was unfortunate for the watcher, for injured Yuuki was—and hurt Anzu was, and that decided one.

It wasn't, some might say, fair to set up a game involving a hot grill and heat-sensitive explosives (what exactly the explosives were, one did not know; the shadows provided) packed in an ice puck when one player was confident of being able to escape unharmed due to healing ability and the other player had no such power. Well, it wasn't—some might say—fair to do as Inogashira and his companions had done in bringing superior size and strength to bear in order to steal what they had not rightfully won.

Yuuki had played air hockey before. One knew how.

* * *

One was not _entirely_ unfair to Inogashira. One made sure he survived the explosion, and partially healed him before leaving him behind, as one had done for Hanasaki mere—was it hours? days? certainly not very long—ago.

* * *

Yuuki, released from the infirmary, wasn't sure she dared return to the site of the destroyed carnival-games booth. Her feet carried her forward anyway.

"Hey," said Miho, looking up as Yuuki approached. "Look what we did!"

Yuuki sucked in a breath and did not let out a sniffle. The booth—her games booth—they were rebuilding, exactly where they'd won the spot for it fair and square.

"_Excellent_," Yuuki said. "Where do we need me?"

**Author's Note:**

> I have so many more plans for this universe! What's motivation, please?


End file.
